Greetings in Christ from Rosemary Beach, FL. I hope this email finds you well in this new year, and that the light of Christ is illuminating your life in new and exciting ways. In this email I want to briefly share some of the exciting things going on with my ministry at Apostles by-the-sea in Rosemary Beach, and how the light of Christ is shining in this community.
When I came to Apostles By-the-Sea in October of 2012 after graduating from Duke Divinity School and being ordained as a Deacon in the Gulf-Atlantic diocese, I knew I was walking into a place of grace. God was laying out his plans before Apostles By-the-Sea was even planted when he brought me to St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Tallahassee for an internship, where I met Fr. John Wallace. As we got to know each other, I knew I found both a mentor in ministry and a teammate in Christian thought and practice. He became my mentor in the diocese discernment process, but I never thought I could be working for him in less than a year. God is good. Fr. John called me to Apostles By-the-Sea in September, and by October 27th, 2013, I preached my first sermon in the Town Hall at Rosemary Beach where Apostles By-the-Sea meets weekly. You can find a link to it here.
When I came to Apostles By-the-Sea in October of 2012 after graduating from Duke Divinity School and being ordained as a Deacon in the Gulf-Atlantic diocese, I knew I was walking into a place of grace. God was laying out his plans before Apostles By-the-Sea was even planted when he brought me to St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Tallahassee for an internship, where I met Fr. John Wallace. As we got to know each other, I knew I found both a mentor in ministry and a teammate in Christian thought and practice. He became my mentor in the diocese discernment process, but I never thought I could be working for him in less than a year. God is good. Fr. John called me to Apostles By-the-Sea in September, and by October 27th, 2013, I preached my first sermon in the Town Hall at Rosemary Beach where Apostles By-the-Sea meets weekly. You can find a link to it here.
First steps are unforgettable: they set a course for how we walk, who we trust, and where we go. My first steps in the life of ministry at Apostles By-the-Sea have struck themes in my heart that were rung before I was called, and will be resounding throughout my life. The first theme is preaching. It was only in my last year of school that I discovered my preaching voice, what the gospel means to me and how I share it in the pulpit; Fr. John has helped me expand that voice in preaching ministry. I’ve preached from the Old Testament, the Psalms, and from the Gospels, and each sermon has challenged me, and hopefully my congregation with the presence of God throughout the Scriptures. In a church planting context, the sermon is crucial for bringing people’s hearts close to God’s mercy and grace in Christ, and maybe the only opportunity for a week or more to speak truth into their lives. Given Rosemary Beach’s high volume of visitors, I’ve also seen how God can use something I’ve said to impact a total stranger who I might not see again. Truly, it is planting the Word so someone else can reap. The second theme of my first steps in ministry has been prayer. During seminary, prayer ministry became a highlight of my own spiritual life and my work in local parishes. As I accepted the call to Apostles By-the-Sea, I asked God for lay prayer ministers with whom I could partner. God had three waiting for me. Within a few weeks we began to offer a special prayer ministry time after people had received the Eucharist on Sunday mornings, and the Holy Spirit has been present in unique and personal ways. This ministry is now a regular part ofSunday liturgy, and we are seeking new ways to make prayer present to our parish. When you come to visit Apostles By-the-Sea, make sure to come for prayer, and see what blessings the Holy Spirit has for you.
New Steps lead to new journeys. The first time Fr. John and I sat down to talk about ministry at Apostles By-the-Sea, he said, “I want you to go to the Dominican Republic with me on a missions trip.” That trip came about through partnership with an area church and Global Effect, a ministry that works to transform impoverished communities through clean water technologies and community empowerment. A team from both churches went to the Dominican Republic to reach out to children, through bible-based kids camps, and to families in crisis because of the lack of clean water. We shared gifts with children for Three Kings Day, and went into impoverished areas to install water filters in people’s homes. For me, it was a tremendous privilege to share the gift of clean water with these people, to share God’s love for them, and the local church’s concern for their well-being. After installing the filter and showing them how to clean it, we would share Jesus’ love for them through a gospel message, inviting them to share their experiences of God with us, and praying together for God’s blessing and presence in each home. I came away from the trip knowing God is with the poor in a special way, and in Christ he is lifting up the lowly.
When Bishop Neil ordained me to the diaconate in June, 2013, he asked me to join him on his annual trip to Israel. And through the generous help of the diocese and Apostles By-the-Sea, that request, and my dream, was realized. This journey to Israel was many things: a pilgrimage, a geography lesson, a time to mourn a history of violence, and a call to read and study the scriptures more deeply in community. Beginning in Galilee where Jesus spent most of his life and ministry, we traveled down to the Dead Sea to see the Qumran community site, and then to Jerusalem. As we learned about Jewish life in the synagogue, I was inspired by the way the community reads and interprets Scripture; as we saw Jews and Christians in the city practice prayer, I thought about what it means to belong to the people of God. At Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial museum, there was a small book of the Psalms that a man had carried on a forced march to a labor camp, where he died. What were the psalms he was singing on that march? I could not answer. I found in Israel a deep passion and desire for God, to belong to a people who seek after God, and many more questions than I had before. Not only has my Scriptural imagination grown, so has my vision of ministry, Christian community, and the Jewishness of Jesus. It is my prayer that this becomes manifest in my parish leadership, my preaching, and my study of Scripture.
I am now at a half-way point with my time at Apostles By-the-Sea, and as I have shared what has taken place in the last few months of ministry, I want to ask your prayers for what lies ahead. As we approach the season of Lent, Fr. John and I are working to put on a focused study for our community, hopefully to meet in homes and bring an intimate level of dialogue and learning. For the late Spring, the Prayer Ministry is hoping to host a spiritual retreat for Apostles By-the-Sea and other christian churches in the area. Would you join me in prayer for these ministries, for the vitality of the community, and the joy of the presence of Jesus in ministry and mission? It has been a joy to join Fr. John and Apostles By-the-Sea in my first steps in ministry, to take new journeys with them, and to see the life of Christ manifest in prayer, preaching, and the strangers that come among our community.
In Christ,
Deacon Aaron
In Christ,
Deacon Aaron
